Tag: the verve

The year was 1997. Pop, as always, was in. Grunge/alt-rock was no longer alternative, and starting to give way to dance music, and Ska was just taking hold in Eastern Canada…

I give you 96 83 minutes of 1997. Although I seriously considered creating an All-CanCon(*) playlist, but that would not be a true reflection of my listening habits that year. Bear in mind, this mix is a reflection of my last term of high school, the following summer and the start of my freshman year of university:

My mix, based on what iTunes thinks I like with the random selection of Nick Lowe…

Many moons ago, Kristen (who is among my oldest friends) made the suggestion that I put my iTunes on random and just make a mix of the first load of songs that come up. For reasons unclear (mostly laziness I suspect), I never got around to it until last week, where I specifically just threw the iPhone into a frenzy as I scrolled through my 32GB library and decided to hit shuffle, which resulted in the wonderful “Cruel to be Kind” by Nick Lowe. I then pressed Genius to see what it’d recommend and the result was…. well, it was all over the place, but it actually sounded pretty good. I didn’t change the order or anything.

So here you go. My mix, based on what iTunes thinks I like with the random selection of Nick Lowe…

Nick Lowe – Cruel to be Kind

John Hiatt – Ethylene

William Shatner – Ideal Woman

Aimee Mann – Put Me On Top

Hall & Oates – Did It In A Minute

Sleep Out – Three Towns

Electronic – Getting Away With It

The Dead Weather – Treat Me Like Your Mother

Mexican Institute of Sound – Sinfonía Agridulce

Prince – She’s Always In My Hair

Saul Williams – The Ritual

Jellyfish – The Glutton of Sympathy

Santigold – Say Aha

The Go! Team – Get It Together

Prodigy – Memphis Bells

Street Sweeper Social Club – Fight! Smash! Win!

The Roots – No Great Pretender

Squirrel Nut Zippers – It Ain’t You

Astrud Gilberto – Light My Fire

Tom Jones – Green, Green Grass of Home

Please… also let me know how my voice sounds. I was so pissed off with my last show that I plunked down for a Blue Snowball and I think it’s a marked improvement. You tell me…

…in which I take you on a trip… through the mind, inner space and time itself. In the past few weeks, I’ve had the good fortune of recovering some first blog entries going back to 2003 where Suzy and I took a long-delayed honeymoon to Amsterdam for two glorious weeks. I could regale you with my writings forever, but instead, let us take the quest to enlightenment, self-discovery as we travel through giddiness, joy, peace, love, bemusement, reflection, questioning, anxiety, paranoia, panic, anger, badassery and ultimately resolution — the kind that generally leads to three grand slam breakfast skillets at Denny’s around 2am and about 13 boxes of Nerds.

This week’s mix comes from a tender spot as two longtime friends seem to be drifting apart and my heart and thoughts go out to both of them. I think they could use a good cry, so if they’re listening, I hope this brings them to the same table so they can work out what’s going down. And since I’m feeling all emo, I’ll share some favorite cry-it-out tunes from O.A.R., Jude Cole, Indigo Girls, Genesis, Hüsker Du, Pearl Jam, Coldplay, Crowded House, Del Amitri, Thomas Dolby, The Verve, Aimee Mann, Imogen Heap and Elliott Smith. Listen and make sure you give (and get) a hug.